Osana straightened up, her gaze meeting Aldfrith’s. “I had no idea you were called by another name. It must have seemed odd to hear folk calling you ‘Aldfrith’?”
His mouth curved. “Aye. I gave up asking folk at Bebbanburg to use my real name. To them, I will always be Aldfrith, son of Oswiu.”
“I shall call you ‘Flann’,” she replied, smiling, “when we’re alone … if you’d like?”
He gazed up at her, his eyes soft and dark in the firelight. “Aye, I’d like that.”
Chapter Twenty-nine
The Return
“THE KING?” HAGONA’S face was pale in the firelight as she wrapped up some bread and boiled eggs for Osana to take with her on her journey. “No wonder you didn’t tell me.”
Osana smiled. “Aye, some secrets are best kept.”
Her aunt straightened up, observing her niece keenly. “Does he know … that you’re carrying his child?”
Osana nodded.
“And he’ll take you back with him, wed you … make you his queen?” Hagona’s expression turned incredulous. Osana did not blame her. She had difficulty believing this was actually happening herself. She had woken this morning a different person to who she was now.Thenshe had been resigned to a future where she would give birth to the king’s bastard and raise it in a tiny annex behind her aunt’s hall; a future where folk would whisper about her, stare, and point. A future where she would gradually grow as bitter and hard as her aunt.
“Aye … he says he will.”
Something moved in Hagona’s eyes then, a shadow that almost looked like grief. “That’s the test of a man,” she said softly, “… how he treats you when you have nothing to give him but your body, your heart.”
Silence fell between them. Shocked by her aunt’s words, which were so unlike her, Osana frowned. “What happened, Hagona … how did you end up living here alone? Why did you never wed?”
Her aunt heaved in a deep breath and turned back to wrapping the food. Aldfrith and his men waited outside; the women did not have much more time together. “I gave my heart to the wrong man … long ago,” she replied, her voice barely above a whisper, “and I never recovered from it.”
Osana watched her aunt, wondering who the man had been. Osana’s mother had never mentioned Hagona’s past. For as long as Osana had known, Hagona had merely been the sharp-tongued aunt you did not want to visit.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly, for she knew what it was to be hurt and to live without hope. She did not ask anything further; she had the feeling Hagona would refuse anyway. Her aunt was prickly at the best of times, and Osana could see by the tense line of her jaw that she was not prepared to reveal anything else about her past.
Hagona straightened up and passed Osana the neatly wrapped package of food. “That’s why I know the value of a good man,” she said with a smile that did not quite reach her eyes. “For I have plenty of experience with a bad one. The king loves you and will go against tradition to wed you. Wyrd shines upon you, niece.”
Osana huffed, smiling once more as she took the food. She rarely heard folk speak of ‘wyrd’ these days. It was part of the old ways, the old gods—when folk believed that fortune ruled your fate. These days most people believed that it was God’s will that charted the course of your life.
Osana was not sure she believed in either. Some things you could not control—yet the past year had taught her that you always had choices in life. The difference was whether you had the courage to act upon them.
Osana leaned back against the hard wall of Aldfrith’s body. The strength and safety of his encircling arms, reaching forward to hold the reins, gave her a sense of peace she had never known before.
They rode across wide rolling hills, the sky a swathe of cloudless blue above. The sun was warm on their faces. Cerdic and another warrior rode upfront while Aldfrith and Osana followed just behind. The remainder of their party brought up the rear.
They had left Jedworth without delay, departing through the north gate so that they would not have to pass through the town and risk the ealdorman or his men spotting them.
They had lingered just long enough for Osana to thank her aunt and wish her goodbye. It seemed an irony to give Hagona thanks after her cool welcome, yet she had allowed Osana to live with her when many would not have.
Osana had even felt choked up as she rode away. She glanced back over her shoulder, her gaze settling upon the solitary figure standing in the midst of her garden. Hagona was not one to reveal much about herself, yet that brief conversation had told Osana much.
It made her own happiness now even more precious, for she knew how harsh life could be, how not everyone received a happy ending.
Warmth suffused her, and she closed her eyes a moment, absorbing the feel of Aldfrith’s body against hers. She breathed in the rich scent of earth and grass surrounding them.
She loved him, and yet she had not told him so. There was a part of her, the part that sought to preserve her from harm, that made her hold back. They were still far from Bebbanburg, and she was not yet Aldfrith’s wife.
I will tell him soon,she promised herself silently.When we are alone and I feel safe.
There was still part of her that wondered if this was real; she half-expected Aldfrith’s men to start laughing at how foolish this woman was. But they did not.
